FULL HOUSE DROUGHT: The longest period without a floor session that all members attended (all 80 Assemblymembers and all 40 Senators) was 7 years and 11 months between July 10, 2007 and June 1, 2015. Atkins was the presiding officer of the Assembly on the day that the drought ended.

NOTABLE HISTORY: One of only three people to ever serve as the leader of both houses of the Legislature. The others were James T. Farley and Ransom Burnell. At the time Atkins assumes office as Senate President Pro Tem, it will have been 146 years since Farley finished his time in that role.

QUOTABLE: In February 2016, while members of the California Coastal Commission were deciding whether to fire the commission's Executive Director, Atkins tweeted, "Let me apologize to the public. I truly thought my appointees would be better stewards of the coast."